A Midnight Clear

December 20, 2024

Greetings from the depth of the year!

Now, at the winter solstice, the longest nights will retreat, bit by bit.  

We have a natural tendency to embrace the light and dread the dark, even though, as a species, we have more access to light than in all of our history.  We were not designed for this.

So let’s consider the gems that shine within us only though the darkness.

First, a mini-story.  There’s an acupuncture point translated as Sun and Moon. The Chinese character shows an open eye and a half closed eye. The sun lays the world out for us–the open eye. To navigate by the light of the moon, however, requires more than visual acuity.  The moon in this sense is the navigation of life via the half-seen yet (ideally) wholly perceived. 

The  longest nights are an invitation to explore and cultivate our inner life.  They call us to bend inward, sink deeper.   Sleep is part of this–the outward mind is off-line; our deeper consciousness is dancing about freely during those hours, sorting through our being–often in highly productive and imaginative ways.

Many of us have a mountainous to-do list (or want-to-do list)  that doesn't fit our inner tempo.  But by trimming that list, we get the chance to permit those depths to reveal themselves, and to restore.  "Sometimes this just means saying "no" to the part of us that always likes to have things to do and thoughts to think," (Neil Douglas-Klotz, 99 Pathways to the Heart.)

In the prominent traditional medicines around the world, one path to healing starts by reigning in the over-expressive parts of ourselves in order to pool up power.   Winter, traditionally a quiet season, is, in Chinese medicine, a power season.  As a survival season, winter is also the time to steward our precious energy, along with the inner qualities that feed it.

May this winter solstice inspire you to use your inner sight tend to yourself in the deepest way.